This remarkable comedy series, which ran for 275 episodes between 1982 and 1993, earned a record 117 Emmy nominations (28 wins) and claimed six Golden Globe awards. And it's still funny.

What makes the show highly watchable three decades on is the cracking quality of the dialogue, the comic acting and the weird, yet likeable characters. The pleasant, cheesy theme tune ('Where Everybody Knows Your Name') opened a programme set almost exclusively in a bar in Boston called Cheers. Being filmed "before a live studio audience" was an element that seemed key to its energy. The actors were kept on their toes, and the cast seemed to derive an energy from instant laughter at well-delivered quips rather than canned laughter added later.

The early seasons are all about the sexual tension and social differences between the Lothario bar owner Sam 'Mayday' Malone – a former Boston Red Sox relief pitcher played with consummate charm by Ted Danson – and Diane, the educated bar woman who falls for him despite her obvious superiority in brain cells. Danson paid tribute to Shelley Long at a Cheers 30th Reunion celebration in 2011, saying: "We hadn't seen a character like Diane Chambers for years ... You really put Cheers on the map with your astounding performance."

The show drifted for a bit when Diane left (even John Updike's Rabbit at Rest says of hero Rabbit Angstrom that "he can't stand Cheers now that Shelley Long is gone") but Kirsty Alley (as Rebecca Howe) proved a good foil to Sam in later seasons.

Cheers, created by James Burrows, Glen Charles and Les Charles, was based around a core of top-grade oddball characters. There was the dim-witted barman Ernie Pantusso (always known as 'Coach') played with skill by Nicholas Colasanto. When he died, the dimwit rube role was taken over by Woody Harrelson, who proved himself a superb comic actor.

The two mainstays of the saloon were George Wendt as witty, obese barfly Norm Peterson (a running gag was his entrance to shouts of 'Norm!)

Woody: Can I pour you a draft, Mr Peterson?Norm: A little early isn't it, Woody?Woody: For a beer?Norm: No, for stupid questions

and his nerdy friend, the mail man Cliff Claven, played by John Ratzenberger. Cliff is the butt of a lot of the humour in sometimes impeccable scripts. Ratzenberger had auditioned for the part of Norm but sensing that he wasn't going to get the job, suggested the part of a bar know-it-all. When he says once that he's not in the mood to talk, the bar breaks into a thunderous round of applause. Ratzenberger (below, third right) also came up with the idea for Cliff's trademark white socks, which he wore as a tribute to French comedian Jacques Tati.

Cliff gets a lot of stick from the bar woman Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman), and attracted bemused comments from the psychiatrist character Dr Frasier Crane, who says after one wild bout of boasting:

"Hello in there, Cliff. Tell me, what colour is the sky in your world?"

Cheers, which was nearly cancelled during its first season because of low ratings, had duff shows among the 275 yet was also the basis for one of the most successful television spin-offs ever (Frasier) and Grammer, with on-screen wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth), helped forge one of the most wittily dysfunctional married couples in TV history. Grammer lights up every scene he is in. Cheers also spawned a less successful spin-off called The Tortellis, which was canned after 13 episodes.

There were occasional guest stars (including politicians such as Tip O'Neill and Michael Dukakis) and a fine Emmy-winning cameo by John Cleese. The final episode of Cheers was watched by 83 million viewers.